Vocabulary growth at tertiary level: How much progress can Serbian EFL learners make in a year?

Abstract

The size of L2 learners' vocabulary, both receptive and productive, represents a vital concept in the field of L2 acquisition, given that it determines the degree of success in communication. The larger the vocabulary size of a learner is, the better his/her understanding and ease of communication in the target language. For this reason, a body of research focusing on the developmental process of lexical acquisition in L2 learners of various proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced) in different teaching contexts is nowadays steadily expanding. A recent study aimed at investigating the relationship between lexical reception and production in Serbian L1 English L2 learners, English language majors, has indicated that production seriously lags behind reception. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to explore the growth in receptive and productive vocabulary size of B2-level (CEFR) English L2 learners, first year English majors, over a period of a single academic year. The data obtained reveal that the rich L2 input provided in Integrated skills classes, combined with other compulsory and elective courses predominantly held in English, has resulted in the learners' productive lexical knowledge developing faster than their receptive lexical knowledge. This outcome consequently affected the relationship between the learners' receptive and productive vocabulary size - the gap between the two narrowed.